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Winter season fourth warmest on record for the contiguous United States

Submitted by susan.osborne on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 2:43pm

According to scientists here at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center , warmer-than-average temperatures dominated the northern and eastern regions of the country in December, January and February, leading to the fourth warmest winter on record for the contiguous United States. The winter season was also drier-than-average for the Lower 48, with dry conditions experienced across the West and the Southeast but wetter-than-average conditions in the Central and Southern Plains and parts of the Ohio Valley. The average contiguous U.S. temperature during the December-February period was 36.8 degrees F, 3.9 degrees F above the 1901-2000 long-term average – the warmest since 2000. The precipitation averaged across the nation was 5.70 inches, 0.78 inch below the long-term average. See the full highlights at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/.